An Intro to Modern

With Mythic Championship II just behind us and Modern Horizons coming up, there’s been
a lot of buzz about the Modern format. We’ve also seen a huge influx of new Magic players to the competitive
ecosystem with the advent of MTG Arena, so we wanted to offer a quick
introduction to the Modern format.

Modern is a non-rotating format that includes cards from Eighth Edition to the present. That card
pool includes some of the most powerful and efficiently-costed creatures and
spells ever printed, so Modern decks have a much higher power level than the
Standard decks you may be used to.

An extensive banned list keeps the Modern format in check. Here’s
a list of all the cards that are currently banned in Modern:

Competitive Magic
players often refer to Modern as “The Players’ Format.” Unlike Standard, whose
metagame changes rapidly and rewards players who choose the right deck for the
tournament, Modern rewards those who know their decks inside and out. The
format is diverse enough that your favorite deck often has a fighting chance,
no matter how fringe it may be.

If you’re looking to start playing Modern, here are a few beginner-friendly decks that we’d recommend:

Burn

Burn is a perennial favorite for newer Modern players. It’s
relatively affordable to build, and even budget versions of the deck can be
successful in tournaments.

Modern Burn is blisteringly fast, with plenty of one-mana
creatures and spells in its arsenal. That means you can power up a Monastery
Swiftspear quickly, especially if you have a Rift
Bolt coming off suspend the turn you attack with it. Eidolon
of the Great Revel is also a fantastic tool for Burn to win races against
other decks that have low-cost spells to cast.

Burn’s game plan is easy to understand, but its nuances take
time and practice to master. We highly recommend it to any new Modern players,
or players looking to expand their range.